Star Trek:Odyssey 12:Spectre's Rose
by rylansato
Summary: The Alexandria is sent on a mission to the Mirror Universe to make an offensive strike against the Terran Empire. When the mission goes terribly wrong, it leaves four members of the Alexandria stranded in the parallel universe.
1. Odd Mission

Star Trek: Odyssey: Spectre's Rose

_Captain's Log: Stardate: 57905.9. We are currently in orbit around Earth at Earth Station McKinley undergoing repairs from the damages taken from the Battle of Betazed. Commander Zofchak and Commander Sato are on leave to attend the funeral of Dustin's sister who was lost along with the rest of the crew of the Solent at Betazed. Admiral McKeen has requested to see me upon arrival to discuss a possible mission. The details of the mission, she didn't want to discuss over subspace. I will find out once I arrive to her office._

Captain Allensworth walked into the office of Admiral McKeen. It seemed like that's all he was doing lately. One admiral's office one day another the next. He was probably in an admiral's office more often than his own quarters. The Admiral got up out of her chair and walked around to shake Allensworth's hand. This admiral was probably as old as Admiral Janeway. Of course, that seemed to be a recurring theme as well. There seemed to be an abundance of younger looking admirals. Of course, Admiral Janeway was only forty-four now but the more widely known admirals were older such as Jellico and Nechayev.

"Thanks for coming, Captain." McKeen said. "Have a seat."

Jermaine sat down about a moment before McKeen sat in her seat.

"So, this mission you spoke of is of major importance I take it since it couldn't be discussed over subspace." Allensworth said.

"That is correct, Captain. The mission entails sending you and your crew to the other side."

"The other side?"

"Yes. You've done it before with the help of the crew from Deep Space Nine and the Defiant. You went over there to retrieve your chief engineer."

"I'm aware of what had happened, Admiral but I fail to see why we're going to start sending ships over there."

"They've invaded our space multiple times and attacked multiple areas including the Utopia Planitia Ship Yards. We are going to invade their space and go on the offensive. It's no different than when we took Chin'toka during the Dominion War. We were able to study the information they have concerning the use of their main deflectors to open these wormholes."

"So, you're sending the Alexandria to the other side to destroy a ship yard?"

"That's correct, Captain. Gather your crew and depart in two hours. You will rendezvous with the Thunderchild and Challenger in the Antares Sector and the two ships will help emit an anomaly similar to the one the Terran Empire uses. The Alexandria alone will go through and proceed to the ship yard. Dismissed."

Allensworth didn't have time to object or raise concern. He simply stood up and left. He walked down the corridor to the transporter room, his head racing with thoughts.

_This doesn't make any sense. Why only send one ship. Why not send more? Something is not right here._

He reached the transporter room and stood on the pad. The transporter chief pressed a few buttons and Allensworth dematerialized from the transporter pad.

Commander Zofchak and Commander Sato sat with his mother in the kitchen of his mother's house on Earth. They were going through old pictures of him and his sisters.

"So your mother is going to cook us dinner tonight?"

"Yeah. She's going to use some old recipe that she got from an ancestor."

Hoshi stared at the pictures then up to Dustin. "So I talked to Doctor Plumley before we left the ship and I was waiting for a good time to tell you."

Dustin looked at her wondering where she was headed with this.

"But now is as good as any." She said. "Dustin, I'm…"

Just then Dustin felt the very subtle vibration of his comm. badge activating.

"Alexandria to Commander Zofchak."

It was Commander Sparhawk's voice.

"Go ahead." Dustin said tapping the badge.

"You and Commander Sato are to report to the ship immediately."

"We're on our way, sir." Dustin looked to Hoshi and his mother. "Looks like we won't be staying."

By the time Captain Allensworth walked onto the bridge, almost two hours had passed and the bridge crew had returned to the ship and were at their respective stations. He stood for a few moments next to Zofchak, who was at the engineering console. Dustin looked over and the captain nodded to him basically asking if he was all right. Dustin returned the nod silently answering the silent question. Allensworth walked over and sat down in his seat.

"Helm, set a course for the Antares System, maximum warp."

"Aye, sir." Ensign Stull said.

Allensworth slightly shifted his weight to his right side and leaned on the arm of the chair. He looked over to his first officer. "We're ordered to rendezvous with Thunderchild and Challenger in the Antares System to head over to the other side and destroy a ship yard."

"How many ships are going over?" Sparhawk asked.

"Just us."

Sparhawk raised an eyebrow similar to how a Vulcan would. "Are the top brass expecting smooth sailings and clear horizons once we get over there?"

"I don't know what they're thinking, Jason but I don't agree with this one bit. I think they may want to go blow for blow. They destroy a ship yard, we destroy a ship yard. I just don't understand why they didn't attack Earth when they attacked Mars."

"Course laid in, sir."

"Hit it."

The Alexandria leapt into warp heading for the Antares System.

A few hours later, the Alexandria appeared out of warp in the Antares System and surely enough, the Thunderchild and Challenger were there waiting for them.

"Captain," Fulks said from his station. "We are being hailed by the Thunderchild."

"On screen."

The bulkhead shimmered out to be replaced by the image of Captain Stork.

"Captain Allensworth, we've been instructed to create an interspatial anomaly and send you through to the other side. I can't say that I agree…"

"I understand your concern, Captain and we over here agree. But debating Starfleet's mentality won't get us anywhere."

Stork nodded. "Understood. Stand by while we open this thing. When your mission is complete, signal us by firing a high pulse ion beam from your main deflector. We'll pick it up on our sensors and we'll open the gateway for you. Thunderchild out."

The screen went blank and Captain Allensworth sat back in his chair.

Purple colored particles began to form around the deflector arrays of the Thunderchild and Challenger. Then both ships fired a beam into one spot and created an interspatial anomaly.

"Ensign, take us in." Allensworth said.

"Aye, sir."

The Alexandria glided through the anomaly.


	2. Orbital Skydiving

The senior officers sat in the observation lounge discussing their plan. The ship was not far from the planet in question.

"Our mission is to destroy the Beta Antares ship yards facility. We'll send down a team of four consisting of Commander Zofchak, Commander Merriell, Lieutenant Fulks and Ensign Stull. Long range sensors say that the planet has transport inhibitors in place. And we can't use shuttles because they will be shot down." Allensworth said.

Hoshi looked at Dustin with concern the second she heard his name on the away team.

"Don't tell me." Fulks said.

"We're going to orbitial skydive?" Merriell asked.

"Why couldn't we just fire a few quantum torpedoes to the place?" Sato asked.

"Sensors say that the place is heavily shielded and there are manned guns on the surface that fire quantum torpedoes."

"We'll beam in the team and from there you'll dive to surface and destroy the base from the inside along with the transporter inhibitors. Once successful, you will be beamed back to the ship." Sparhawk said.

"Don't make it sound too easy." Zofchak said leaning back in his chair.

"I want you four ready in one hour. Are there any other questions?" Allensworth asked.

Nobody said anything.

"Dismissed."

The officers got up and left the room. Some went back to their stations on the bridge while others left the deck entirely to go prepare for the mission ahead.

An hour went by rather quickly and the four members of the away team stood by on the transporter pad in their orbital diving suits.

"Zofchak is the key player here in setting the charges and blowing the place. The rest of you make sure that his part of the mission is finished. Merriell, if something happens to Dustin, you take over."

"Aye, sir."

Hoshi walked up to the pad and kissed Dustin on the cheek.

"Come back to me." She said.

"I intend to."

Alex and Michelle looked at each other as if they knew something and then looked forward. Allensworth and Sparhawk stood at the controls.

"Good luck." Sparhawk said.

"Energizing." Allensworth said as he activated the controls.

Within moments, the team dissolved from the transporter room.

Transporting into practically zero g had been brutally disorienting to Commander Zofchak. He saw the other three members of his team around him. On his left and right respectively, were Stull and Merriell. Fulks had materialized in front of him, and was already angling himself toward the planet for his descent. As soon as he regained tactile sensation, he activated his orbital skydiving suit's lower power deflector field. Zofchak gestured to Merriell and Stull, who signaled back that they were ready to make the dive. With a forward slash with his forearm, he keyed his suit's thrusters and rocketed toward the nightside of the planet.

The planet was aglow with to kinds of light. The major population centers resembled webs of steady, artificial looking illumination that radiated out from several points in the highlands and traced wide paths along the coastlines.

"Stand by to open and drop on my marks." Zofchak said into his helmet mic.

He monitored his squad's relative positions. The timing of this jump would leave little room for error, and he couldn't guarantee their safety unless they all maintained precisely the same altitude and rate of descent. This was going to be what the old timers used to call a HALO jump, high altitude, low opening. They would wait until they had dropped low enough to evade the defense scanners, open their chutes only long enough to slow their fall to just less than the maximum impact that their suits' structural integrity fields could absorb, then release their breakaway harnesses and drop to the ground.

He noticed that Stull was lagging nearly a full second behind the rest of the team. "Stull, tighten up."

"If I get any tighter, I'll implode." Stull said.

"If you don't catch up, you'll be dead."

"Aye, sir." She replied.

Seeing that Stull was getting into position, he checked the holographic heads up display on his helmet faceplate. "Get ready." He said. "Roll in five…four…three…two…one…roll!" Pulling his body into an almost fetal curl, he tucked his knees toward his chest. He quickly confirmed that the rest of his team had finished the maneuver. "Open chutes in four…three…two…one…GO!"

His team's parachutes raced upward in unison, amorphous silver blurs reaching toward the sky. As they unfurled, his own canopy expanded. A jolt of deceleration trauma shot through his back and shoulders. As his rate of descent slowed, he activated his suit's improvised structural integrity field.

"Fields on, stand by to drop." He said. The altimeter dropped to eighty meters, then seventy. He started her countdown. "In three…two…one…drop!" He and her team unclasped their breakaway harnesses and plummeted to the ground.

The impact jammed his knees and pelvic joints upward with a dull, grinding pain. Spasms shot up either side of his spine. He choked back a grunt of agony and reminded himself that if not for this planet's lighter than Earth gravity, he'd probably be dead right now.

Ensign Michelle Stull made a pinpoint perfect landing. The nimble young Trill looked around the area and it was not what she had expected. It was a dry and dead, bereft of foliage, little more than a wasteland. Barren tree trunks, acid bleached to the color of bone, jutted from the charcoal colored ground. The sunset blazed blood-red behind inky streaks of smoke and was almost indistinguishable from the sinister glow of fire that lined the horizon beneath it.

Merriell checked his tricorder, then turned and pointed with an extended arm. "That way. Sixteen point for kilometers."

Zofchak slung his phaser rifle over his shoulder and began walking in that direction. "Let's go."

Suddenly the four of them saw four blue lights being launched into the air. Some of the torpedoes arched and headed towards the away team. Others kept going into the air and headed for the Alexandria.

"They're firing Quantum torpedoes. Scatter." Zofchak ordered


	3. Left Behind

Beeping came from Ops as Kell Perim turned around in her seat in a sense of urgency and faced Captain Allensworth. "Sir, they're firing at us."

A look of alarm fell across Allensworth's face. The Terran Empire wasted little time figuring out who was in orbit.

"Take evasive action. Helm, get us out of orbit. Defensive pattern Kirk Epsilon." He ordered.

"Aye, sir."

The navigator's fingers danced across the control board as the Alexandria moved out of orbit and out of the range of the torpedoes. The torpedoes completely missed the Sovereign class starship. Another set of beeping came from Ops.

"Sir, I'm picking up multiple ships heading in our direction." Perim said without turning around.

"Ours or theirs?"

"Picking up registry…theirs, sir." Perim said.

"Damn." Allensworth said as he looked around. He had to get the ship out of danger but he that would mean he would have to leave the away team behind. Being a captain meant he had to make the hard decisions and this was on of them. "Helm, take us back to our side. We're retreating."

Hoshi turned in her seat. "Sir, what about the away team? We can't just… She started but stopped when he raised his hand slightly.

"I understand your concern but we alone can't stand up against a fleet of ships."

"But, sir we can't just leave them down there." She said standing up.

"We have no way to beam them to the ship with those inhibitors in place."

She ran around her station and stood in front of the captain.

"Sir, we can't…"

Allensworth knew this was hard on her and it was hard on him too. If he had a choice, he'd wait to beam the team back but that choice was not an option and he had to get the ship out of danger and that meant taking it back to their own universe. He still had to maintain order on his ship even if he did agree with what Hoshi was saying.

"Resume your station, Commander, or I'll have you relieved of duty." Allensworth said without raising his voice.

Hoshi stood there for a moment and then returned to her station. She knew that away missions usually involved this type of danger and things could happen.

"Helm,… hit it."

The Alexandria swerved around and leapt into warp. Hoshi watched the view screen as she left Dustin and the rest of the away team behind in the mirror universe.

The warheads slammed into the ground near the away team as they ran in separate directions. Multiple explosions erupted as a result. The ground cannons only fired a few rounds but it was enough to annihilate anything that was in the area.

The smoke settled after awhile and Commander Zofchak awoke under some debris. He brushed it off and saw that the faceplate of his helmet was broken and totally useless. He shed the skydiving suit and revealed his normal uniform. It didn't appear that he had broken or injured any part of his body other than him being a bit sore. He looked around and saw one other body. The body moved and revealed itself to be Lieutenant Fulks. He stood up and his helmet was practically missing.

"Lieutenant, are you all right?" Zofchak asked.

"Yeah, I'm good, sir." He replied taking off his suit.

"Where are the others?"

"I'm not sure. We all took off in separate directions when the torpedoes were headed for us."

Zofchak tapped his comm. badge. "Zofchak to Commander Merriell."

No response. He tapped it again.

"Zofchak to Ensign Stull."

No response. Zofchak gave a worried look to Fulks. Fulks tried to contact them as well but it was to no avail.

"Should we go look for them, sir?"

"No. We need to complete the mission. Once we finish it and then get back to the ship, we'll use the ship's scanners to look for them. That's if we don't figure out what happened to them before then."

Fulks nodded, thinking it was heartless to leave them but he knew they had a mission to carry out and that was priority. He also knew that it was probably hard for Zofchak to leave his friend like this.

"So, where is the place we need to go?" Fulks asked.

Dustin looked around and saw a building nearby. "Over there. My tricorder still works and it says that's the place we need to go."

Fulks nodded as he picked up his fallen phaser rifle.

Dustin made sure they were ready before they made their move. Once he and his subordinate were ready, he said: "Let's move out."

The two of them grabbed their fallen equipment and left the area heading for the compound near by.

Ensign Stull opened her eyes to see Commander Merriell standing over her. She leaned up slowly.

"Are you okay, Michelle?"

"I think so, sir." She looked around and saw the aftermath of the torpedoes hitting the ground. "Where are we?"

"About a dozen or so meters away from where we used to be. My tricorder isn't working so I'm not exactly sure. There is a building over there which might be where we're supposed to go."

"What about the others?"

"Knowing Dustin, he'd want to continue the mission and then look for us. So, he's probably headed there."

"What if they're dead?"

"We'll just figure out a way to complete the mission ourselves." Alex said.

Michelle got to her feet and got rid of her suit.

"Ready?" Merriell asked.

She nodded as she slung her phaser rifle over her shoulder.

"Let's go." Merriell said.


	4. Figuring out the Mirror Universe

The Alexandria came through the anomaly back into their universe. The Thunderchild and Challenger were there waiting. Allensworth was still not pleased with his decision but he had to make it. He also wasn't pleased with Starfleet sending him on this mission. It was damn near suicide to even attempt it.

"Sir," Hoshi said. "The Thunderchild is hailing us."

"On screen."

The screen switched over to the image of Captain Stork.

"Did you finish your mission already, Captain?"

"No. We had to abort and leave four crewmembers behind."

Stork let out a sigh. "I don't know what Starfleet is thinking in this one. I thought that we were to just stay on our side and fight them when they came over not invade their territory. We have no idea what the hell to even expect over there."

"I agree, Captain. That was the original order but for some reason, Admiral McKeen thought it would be a good idea to send only one ship over there to destroy a shipyard facility." Allensworth said.

Once he finished his conversation with Captain Stork, Allensworth glanced over and saw Hoshi listening very intently to something coming from her station. She pulled out a small device and attached it to her ear. Normally, ear pieces weren't used anymore but if there was a situation where the communications officer needed to listen closely, they could use it. Usually, communications were handled either by the Ops officer or the tactical officer but ever since Hoshi joined the crew, she was given the title of Contact Specialist and the responsibilities of a communications officer due to her expertise in exo-linguistics.

"What is it, Hoshi?" Allensworth asked.

"Sir, we're intercepting a scrambled transmission from an unknown source."

"Can you unscramble it?"

"Yeah, that won't be a problem. Just give me a few moments."

Hoshi went to work at her station and just as she said, only a few moments had passed when she looked back at Captain Allensworth.

"I unscrambled it, sir, but it's in another language."

"Which language?"

"Temarian."

"Temarian? There's no Temarian worlds out in this area nor are there any ships."

"The universal translator is translating into English but I don't understand the words."

"What's it saying?"

Hoshi pressed a button and now the audio could be heard all over the bridge.

_Sato and Mayweather when Archer fell. Captain Forrest and the Tholians. Defiant against Starfleet armada._

"That's all of it, sir."

"What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure, sir. I heard my name in there along with a former crewmember by the name of Travis Mayweather but he was killed in a Xindi attack."

"I'm going to assume that Archer means Jonathan Archer."

"Captain Archer was suffering from parasites and he was killed by the Borg." Hoshi said.

"What about the Defiant against a Starfleet armada?" Sparhawk asked.

"None of this makes any sense." Allensworth said. "Sato and Mayweather when Archer fell. Captain Forrest and the Tholians and Defiant against Starfleet armada."

"The Temarians talk in instances. They refer to past events as their way of communication. If you don't know Temarian history then you won't be able to understand them." Nycz said.

"If they are talking in Temarian then they'd be talking about past events." Perim said.

"But none of these events ever happened." Allensworth said.

"Unless they did in the mirror universe." Sparhawk said.

Allensworth looked at his first officer in a somewhat surprised look.

"That's it."

"Hoshi, look up the subjects that were mentioned in that transmission. I know when Dustin came back from the other side he had copied their files and uploaded them into our databanks. Use them."

"Aye, sir."

"Perim, see if you can locate where that transmission is coming from and where it is going."

"Aye, sir." Perim said turning around in her chair.

"Sir, I found something." Hoshi said.

Allensworth turned back around to see what his contact specialist had uncovered.

"According to this, Captain Forrest was in command of the nx oh one Enterprise, who was killed in a battle with the Tholians. The rest of the crew abandoned ship and were rescued by the away team who were sent over to an Earth ship that was in the hands of the Tholians. That ship was called the Defiant and was from a hundred years in the future and from another timeline."

"Now we know what happened to the NCC-eighteen sixty-four Defiant." Allensworth said.

"Archer took command of Defiant and headed for Earth. However, before reaching Earth he was poisoned by Hoshi Sato who had conspired with Travis Mayweather to get control of the ship. When she arrived at Earth she fought a Starfleet armada and destroyed most of the ships before they surrendered to her and she had proclaimed herself Empress of the Terran Empire."

"Okay, so Mayweather and Sato means betrayal, I'm guessing that Captain Forrest and the Tholians would mean…"

"I'd say something along the lines of a suicide mission." Sparhawk said.

Allensworth nodded.

"All that leaves is the armada and the Defiant." Nycz said.

"Sir," Perim said turning around in her chair. "The transmission is being sent to a location within a few meters of here."

"Do you know where it s coming from?"

"Earth."

"Sato, contact the Thunderchild and Challenger and see if they're picking up this signal too. There must be cloaked ship nearby."

Night time had fallen and Lieutenant Commander Merriell and Ensign Stull marched through a grassy field on their way to the building that lay ahead of them. They stopped to rest by sitting on a fallen tree that was randomly in the middle of the field.

"So, what happens after we complete this mission?" Stull asked.

"I'm not sure, Ensign. If we fail, it would mean death but if we succeed then we get the prize of not going home, unless the Alexandria comes back."

The wind picked up giving them a nice cool feeling in comparison to the sweat they worked up while walking through the area.

"Well, I hope they do come back and…" The young Ensign was cut off by Merriell's hand going up.

She looked at him and noticed he was trying to hear for something. Then he quickly grabbed her and his rifle and ducked behind the log. He moved his head around the log just enough to see and hopefully not be seen. She too looked around the log to see a group of people emerge from the trees. They wore Starfleet uniforms. Michelle was about to stand up and call them over but then she saw the insignia of the Terran Empire on their uniforms. The soldiers were scanning the area for something but Merriell wasn't sure what they were looking for. He hoped it wasn't for them. He aimed his rifle at them as did Stull. There were about five imperial soldiers and with any luck, the two of them could take them out before they fired any shots. Merriell looked at Stull and nodded. After a few seconds of waiting for the right moment, both of them opened fire.

Even though the five soldiers were taken by surprise they were able to fire off a few shots before they were all killed. Once they were all down, Merriell stood up with a bit of victorious arrogance. He then heard a slight moan. A moan he had hoped came from the enemy. However, that was not the case. The moan had come from his partner, Ensign Stull. He rushed over to her and saw that she was holding the left side of her abdomen.

"Let me look at it." He said.

She took her arm away and there was a nasty, bloody wound underneath her palm. He slightly cringed at the sight not because he was disgusted by it but because it looked really bad.

"Are you able to stand?" He asked.

"I'm not sure." She replied.

He helped her to her feet but the second she let go of him she about dropped to the ground. Merriell caught her and set her down gently.

"Looks like you're not going anywhere." He said.

"Yeah but you need to."

"But…"

"You're a Starfleet officer. You have a duty to fulfill. There is still a mission to complete and we're not sure if Zofchak and Fulks are still alive. We need to make sure this mission succeeds."

Alex knew that she was right. His personal judgment told him to stay by her side while his professional judgment told him to go and complete the mission. Going with his professional judgment, he stood up and handed her one of the two phaser rifles and after a slight nod he marched off to complete the mission.

Merriell marched through the jungle like woods with his phaser rifle aimed in front of him, ready to shoot any imperial officer that appeared in front of him. However, he'd probably would've been further ahead if he didn't stop and look back every twenty seconds. He couldn't get the thought of Michelle being all alone in the middle of a field with a serious wound on her stomach. This time that he stopped he looked forward and then looked back. He did this same motion for about thirty seconds before turning around and running back to Michelle's side.


	5. Radiation Surge

Lieutenant Commander Zofchak and Lieutenant Fulks had finally reached the building. They stood up against the wall on either side of the door. Zofchak held his tricorder up to scan inside the building.

"I'm reading one hundred forty-nine personnel inside the building. Where we want to place these charges will be in the room in the center of this building. We'll set the charges and then head to the opposite end of the building and steal one of their shuttles. Once this building blows, it should deactivate the transporter inhibitors as well."

"How many people are just beyond this door?" Fulks asked.

"Thirteen. And there are a higher number of people near the other entrances." He said. "This door is probably our best bet of getting in."

"We might as well make our entrance." Fulks said.

Usually, Zofchak was more a stealthy type. During the Dominion War and when the Dominion took hold over Betazed, Zofchak acted as a sniper and was responsible for a good number of kills. It wasn't something he enjoyed doing but he had to do it for the safety of the Federation.

Once he returned his tricorder to his side pouch, Dustin nodded to the security chief and Fulks leapt in front of the door and kicked it in. The two of them charged in there with phaser rifles firing.

Meanwhile, Alex had returned to where he had left Michelle. The young Ensign was very surprised to see him. She was slightly angry because he abandoned his mission but also a bit glad he came back.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"I couldn't just leave you here by yourself." Alex replied.

"You're a Starfleet officer. You have a duty…"

Alex cut her off. "I couldn't let anything happen to you if I could help it. If something were to happen because I left you here, I didn't want to have that on my conscience."

Michelle accepted that answer and smiled. Alex looked over to the fallen soldiers. "I'm going to see if they have any tricorders and if they do I'll see what I can do with that wound."

He got up and ran over to their fallen enemy. The first two he searched didn't have anything on them but the third one had a tricorder. He came back over and scanned the wound on Michelle.

"Their weapons fire some kind of pulse that left an anti-coagulant in your system."

"That would explain why the bleeding won't stop."

Alex took off the top of his uniform and ripped a piece from his yellow turtleneck. He then applied it to the wound.

"We've got plenty of my shirt to use so that'll help for awhile.

"Always making jokes regardless of the scenario." Stull said.

So that Stull wouldn't move as much, Alex had to remove her grey and black jacket and her turtleneck, revealing the standard issue tank top that Starfleet officers wear underneath their uniforms. He applied the cloth to the wound and told her to hold it there. She wasn't about to argue with a superior officer over something like this so she did as she was told.

"However, if I keep doing this then I'll run out of clothing and then I'll have to use your clothes and we'll be naked by the time we're rescued."

Michelle smiled at Merriell's attempt to keep them in high spirits.

_If we're rescued._ Alex thought.

"Sir," Lieutenant McKenzie said from tactical. "I'm picking up an enormous radiation surge."

"Where's it coming from?"

"From underneath Challenger."

Allensworth turned around to Sato. "Hoshi, contact Captain McAuliffe."

"Aye, sir."

Moments later, the captain of the Challenger appeared. McAuliffe was a human woman in her forties.

"Captain," Allensworth began. "We're picking up an enormous radiation surge coming from underneath your ship."

"Yeah, we're picking that up too. What do you think it is?"

"My suggestion would be a cloaked ship."

"What would a cloaked ship be doing out here?"

"We intercepted a transmission from Earth to this area and we believe the recipients are aboard a cloaked ship."

"Is it possible that it would be a ship from the Terran Empire?"

"That'd be my guess. The Terran Empire did take over the Klingons and Romulans on their side, so they must be able to use cloaking technology. The transmission we intercepted was in Temarian and you know how the Temarians speak.

"Sir, I'm picking up another transmission." Hoshi said. "It's in Temarian again and it says, 'Admiral Black of Avenger. Enterprise at Halkan planet. Tasha Yar of Romulus."

Because of her uncanny knack for linguistics, Hoshi is fluent in forty different alien languages and only has to listen to a new language once before she becomes fluent.

"What's the records say?" Allensworth asked.

"Admiral Black was the commanding officer of the ISS Avenger and was assassinated by Jonathan Archer in twenty-one fifty-five. Captain Kirk annihilated all of the Halkan cities once he returned to his own universe. Tasha Yar was sent back in time to Romulus and she subsequently overthrew their Praetor."

Allensworth thought for a moment. Betrayal, a suicide mission, assassination, destruction, infiltration. The Defiant against a Starfleet armada could mean a lone mirror ship against all of us."

Hoshi put the ear piece on again and listened intently.

"What is it, Hoshi?" Allensworth asked.

"That voice. The voice of the person sending the message is…Admiral McKeen."


	6. Completing The Mission

Allensworth turned back to the viewscreen where Captain McAuliffe was still waiting.

"It would appear that we have an infiltrator at Starfleet Headquarters."

"Who?" McAuliffe asked.

"Admiral McKeen."

"You're kidding."

"All of the instances that Commander Sato translated from the Temarian language fits. Infiltration, would be McKeen getting into Starfleet Headquaters. Assassination suggests that she killed her counterpart. I'm guess that she had a hand in the attack on the Utopia Planitia Ship Yards. And she did send us on this suicide mission where Imperial forces acted rather quickly."

"It makes sense." McAuliffe said. "What are your plans, Captain?"

"I want your and your crew to head back to Earth and take out Admiral McKeen. The Thunderchild will stay here with us and we'll try and find this cloaked ship and we'll try and open the anomaly back up and go and save our people."

"Sounds like a plan, Captain. Good luck."

"Same to you, Captain."

Sparhawk nodded to his girlfriend who was sitting at her station on the right side of the Captain's chair. She nodded in return and the screen switched off.

Captain McAuliffe looked at her navigator. "Helm, set a course for Earth. Maximum warp."

The ship moved in position to leave the system. Suddenly, a photon torpedo came out of no where and slammed into the underside of the Challenger's saucer section.

"Sir, Challenger's been hit." Perim said.

"Shields up, red alert." Allensworth said. "Where did that torpedo come from?"

"Unknown, sir." McKenzie said.

Allensworth sighed. "Great, a ship that can fire when cloaked." He turned to McKenzie. "Lieutenant, prepare a full phaser spread zero elevation, all banks on my mark. Scan for shield impacts and standby photon torpedoes."

"Aye, sir."

"Fire."

The Alexandria fired phasers horizontally in all directions. A few phaser beams struck the cloaked ship. Then the Alexandria fired photon torpedoes that slammed into the ship.

Captain Stork stood from his command chair. "Target that explosion and fire."

The Thunderchild fired quantum torpedoes and struck the cloaked ship. The ship now became visible.

"It's a Prometheus class ship." Allensworth said. "Fire quantum torpedoes before they can separate into its three components."

Both ships fired upon the Prometheus class ship, ultimately destroying it.

Commander Zofchak and Lieutenant Fulks sprinted through the corridors of the building. They had just set the charges and had only minutes to get out. Imperial soldiers appeared in front of them, not expecting to see them and were ultimately gunned down. They reached a door and kicked it open. It was a hangar bay full of Peregrine class fighters.

"Let's steal one of them." Zofchak said.

Before they could move, a phaser blast struck the wall behind them. The two ducked as a reflex and returned fire.

"We don't have time for this." Fulks said.

"I know. Let's head for the nearest one."

The two stood up and ran for the nearest fighter. They fired at their enemies more intensely as they ran. They successfully got to the fighter and entered the small craft. The two of them sat down in the two seats in the cockpit and activated the controls.

"How are we going to get out?" Fulks asked

"Like this." Zofchak said as he pressed a few buttons on the console.

The fighter lifted into the air and fired at the wall, destroying it. The Peregrine class fighter shot through the opening and into the night sky.

Merriell and Stull in the same place that they've been since their battle a few hours ago. Alex had ripped off most of the arm of his shirt and used it as a bandage for Stull's wound. She was completely pale and looked sickly. She had lost a lot of blood in these past few hours. Alex knew that if she didn't get proper medical attention, then she'd surely die.

Suddenly, he heard a loud explosion in the distance. Stull moved her head slightly toward the direction of the explosion.

"That must be Dustin's doing." Alex said.

Michelle smiled weakly. Then Alex heard a twig snap. He ducked down and looked towards where the sound came from. Shadows emerged from the trees and it surely wasn't the cavalry. A group of Imperial forces came marching from the forest.

"Damn it." Alex whispered. "They'll definitely find us."

He drew his phaser and fired.

Stull slowly moved and with the strength she had left, she aimed her phaser rifle and she too fired at the oncoming soldiers.

"Damn it." Merriell said as he fired some more. "They just keep coming."

Then he heard something from above. He looked up to see a Peregrine class fighter in the air heading in their direction. The fighter swooped in low and fired its pulse phaser cannons at the mirror forces. On their first attack, they took out most of the troops. They came in for a second pass and fired some more.

One of the Imperial soldiers aimed a photon cannon at the ship and fired. Two purple colored torpedoes struck the under side of the ship. The ship went down and crashed just in front of the tree line of the forest.

"DUSTIN!" Alex yelled. He looked back to Michelle. "Come on, let's go."

Stull nodded as she stood up and with Alex's help they jogged through the field and over to the fallen fighter. An Imperial soldier rose from the grass and took aim at Alex. But Alex saw him first and fired, hitting the soldier square in the chest with his phaser beam.

The two of them reached the ship that obviously had better days. It was damn near in pieces. Stull leaned up against part of the ship and ended up sitting down. Fulks pulled himself from the rubble of the ship and stood up a bit wearily. Dustin was lying up against part of the ship. Alex ran up to him. A piece of metal was sticking out of Dustin's neck. He winced in pain as he tried to move.

"Man, I really messed up now. Hoshi is going to have my hide for this one."

Alex knelt down and pulled the piece out. "You're lucky that wasn't a major artery."

Then a shadow loomed over both of them. Dustin's eyes widened as Alex turned around to see it was an Imperial soldier. The soldier slammed the butt end of his rifle into Alex's head. More soldiers came over as they had their weapons trained on the four officers. One came over and started tying Dustin's legs with a rope and began pulling him another draped Fulks's arms over a piece of wood and began tying them there. They forcibly pulled Stull to her feet and began tying her arms behind her back.

"Leave her alone." Merriell protested as he tried to resist his capture.

As Zofchak was being dragged away, he saw a fallen phaser on the ground. He reached over and grabbed it. He aimed it at his captor and fired. The soldier fell just as Dustin fired two more shots into the soldiers that were tying up Fulks. With all of her might, Stull put her shoulder into her captor and drew his phaser shooting more soldiers. The soldier who was tying up Merriell stopped what he was doing, pushed Merriell to the side and drew his phaser. Zofchak aimed his phaser at him and pressed the firing stud.

Nothing happened.

The phaser jammed and the Imperial soldier took aim at Zofchak. He fired and at the last second Fulks jumped in the way of the blast. The phaser beamed ripped through Fulks's torso and he fell to the ground. Stull fired her phaser at the Imperial soldier, and he too fell.

Zofchak crawled over to Fulks. "Why did you do that? You didn't have to jump in the way."

"It was my duty, sir." He said. "I was ordered to keep you alive. Plus…someone once said, 'The needs of the many… outweigh the needs…of the few."

"That doesn't apply here. It would've been me dying, not you. That's still one person."

Fulks did his best to smile. He felt his life leaving him. He only had moments left. You're…needed on…the ship. You're…going to be a…"

Fulks closed his eyes and died.


	7. Things Are Going To Be All Right

The Alexandria warped through space as it approached the planet that held members of its crew.

"Now entering orbit, sir." Perim said.

"Doctor Plumley, report to transporter room two." Allensworth said into the intercom.

"On my way." She said.

"Transporter room, do you have a lock on them?" Allensworth asked.

"Yes, sir. I'm beaming them aboard now."

"I'll be in the transporter room. Helm, set a course out of this universe and then once we're back in our own universe set a course for Earth. Maximum warp. Sparhawk, you have the bridge." Allensworth said as he entered the turbolift followed by Sato.

Moments later, the turbolift doors opened and they ran down the corridor and turned to corner that led to the transporter room. The doors opened before they got to them. Two nurses pushed an anti-gravity sled with Ensign Stull on it and were followed by two other nurses that pushed an anti-grav sled with a body on it that was covered by a sheet. Hoshi's heart dropped as she feared the worst. Doctor Plumley came out of the transporter room followed by Merriell and Zofchak. Hoshi ran up to Dustin and hugged him tightly.

Putting two and two together, Allensworth realized it was David Fulks that lied underneath the sheet. "What happened?"

"He jumped in the way of a phaser beam that was meant for me. He saved my life, Captain."

Allensworth lowered his head saddened by the loss of his comrade. Plumley and the two nurses continued on their way to sickbay with Zofchak and Merriell in tow.

Shortly later, with the ship back in its own universe, it and the Thunderchild were en route to Earth. The senior officers of the Alexandria stood in the lounge. Zofchak stood with a bandage on the spot of his neck where the metal shard once was. Merriell was probably the luckiest out of the bunch with coming out of the mission with only a few scratches and scrapes. Lieutenant McKenzie and Ensign Stull stood with them too. Stull was bandaged underneath her uniform but acted like nothing was wrong with her. Captain Allensworth stood before both of them.

"He spoke very highly of you. He had informed me that he would like you as his successor if anything were to happen to him. I wish this was on different terms, but due to recent events, you, Lieutenant McKenzie will become Chief of Security."

"Thank you, sir."

Allensworth reached up and changed her pip from one gold and one black to two gold pips. He then took a slight step over to face Ensign Stull.

"You did knowing and willfully go above and beyond the call of duty for this crew and this ship. You have earned the admiration and respect of the entire crew. I, hereby promote you to the rank of Lieutenant and the rights and privileges thereto."

He then placed a black pip next to the gold pip on her collar. She did her best not to grin but couldn't help it when she saw Merriell grin and then wink at her. Then the captain turned around and opened a bottle Chateau Picard and poured it into multiple glasses and then handed a glass to each of the officers. They all raised a glass into the air.

"To absent friends."

"I remember the first time I met David." Sparhawk said. "He and I went to high school together. We all had to do family trees and he stood up there proudly as he stated the fact that he was related to Jonathan Archer."

"There heroism obviously didn't falter through the family line." Hoshi said.

"Then when we ended up going to the academy together and there was a shooting tournament, double elimination. He lost in the first round. He stayed up all night practicing and then he flew through the tournament beating everyone else and winning first place. That's when I knew that I couldn't wait to serve with him on the same ship."

"I saw his service record and the commendation his captain gave him while he served on the Nautilus." Captain Allensworth said. "He stayed at his post when the Nautilus was boarded by Jem'Hadar. With most of the bridge crew killed, he stayed and made sure the captain was safe. Because of that he was promoted to Lieutenant. That's when I knew I wanted him to be my Chief of Security when I got this command."

Allensworth looked at the faces of his senior officers including the two newly promoted ones. Even though this was a hard time with the loss of a good friend, he knew that this group of individuals would grow to become a close knit family. This place was his home and these people were his family and he would do anything to protect them. That's what he believed and that's what Lieutenant David Fulks believed. He smiled because he knew everything was going to be all right.

"Dustin and Hoshi. Didn't the two of you have something that you'd like to share with us?" Allensworth asked.

Dustin looked at Hoshi and she gave him a smile and nod. "Go ahead." She said.

"Well, uh, you see. Only one other person in this room knows. It turned out that David knew too, before I did. Hoshi and I are having twins."

The mood almost instantly changed from a saddened one to one of joy. Allensworth stood there knowing definitely that things were going to be all right.

Suddenly, the intercom kicked on with its usual set of beeps.

"Bridge to Captain Allensworth."

"Go ahead, Lieutenant."

"Sorry to interrupt, sir, there's a message from the Challenger saying they have Admiral McKeen."

Allensworth nodded in approval. Now it was time to get some answers.

The End.


End file.
